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Hundreds Gather Throughout Valley to Denounce Trump Zero Tolerance Policy
- Updated: July 13, 2018
Rally participants protecting the separation of undocumented children from their parents.
by Tony Vindell/LFN
Hundreds of people gathered during an event to denounce the Trump Administration’s zero-policy and to put an end to the separation of undocumented Central American children from their parents.
They met on Thursday, June 28 in Brownsville, at the city’s Linear Park in front of the Reynaldo G. Garza & Filemon Vela Federal Court House.
The protests were part of a nationwide call made by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Many of the protesters came from throughout the Rio Grande Valley and from as far as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and from other U.S. cities.
They chanted a number of slogans denouncing injustice, descrimination and inequality.
“We are here to fight for those families who have been separated,” Astrid Dominguez, with the Border of Texas ACLU. “The border is not alone. The mothers and children are not alone. We are all together.”
Isis Avalo, a woman from Brownsville who now lives in Los Angeles, said brown Tejanos are still looked at in an inhumane way.
“Our brown brothers and sisters continue to be discriminated against,” he said. “Families should be together, not separated.”
Some of the hundreds of people who participated in the Brownsville rally to denounce the Trump administration zero tolerance policy.
Juanita Valdez, with a Valley-based organization called La Union del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, shared the story of an El Salvador man who was separated from his son months ago and has not seen him since.”
The boy suffers from a medical condition, she said, but the government has not attempted to reunite them.”
George and Diane McDiarmid said they live in Riverbend, a retiree community along Texas Highway 281 west of Brownville.
They both said what the government has been doing is horrible.
“Being a northerner, I believe family values should be taught at home,” he said. “I have never seen parents holding the hands of their children as people do here.”
“This separation of children from their parents is against humanity,” his wife said. “It’s against everything.”
As the events went on, the crowd chanted slogans such as “The people united, should never be defeated. “
On Saturday, June 30, a second rally was held in front of the Border Patrol headquarters in McAllen with more than 200 people attending it as part of a nationwide action to protest the zero tolerance policy.
